Our fan RegalStar stumbled across a post announcing the “7th Saki Cup Japanese Mahjong Group Tournament Registration Thread”. They seemed to want to welcome any Japanese Mahjong players, so he came up with this idea of having us get a team to participate. He should be making our intentions known soon: we want in!

I hope the tournament administrative team is going to welcome our request. This will be the first time that osamuko.com will be able to compete as a website versus other teams, and we hope this is a start of many great things to come.

Our team consists of myself, RegalStar, fso, xkime and osamu.

We’re registering as RINKAI, since we will have the highest proportion of non-asians (80% of our main team). The reference is based on one of the manga story’s high school teams with 80% foreign players.

[The translated Registration and Rules threads’ OPs are in the rest of the post, big wall of text] More details to come!

Registration Thread:

(Original link: http://tieba.baidu.com/p/1703314578)

7th Saki Cup Japanese Mahjong Group Tournament Registration Thread

Our tournament is merely a Japanese Mahjong festival, created by people who have a lot of love for Japanese Mahjong and Saki. Winning is secondary; participation is first~ we hope that this will help people create fun summer memories.

We welcome all Japanese mahjong players, as well as people who are interested in Japanese Mahjong to participate.

The tournament will take place in Tenhou, on tournament lobbies. (Specific locations can only be ascertained after registration and grouping.)
The rules will follow that of Saki’s; every team will have five players (senpo, jiho, chuuken, fukusho, taisho); every player will play two hanchan, and the final score will decide the match (every team starts with 100k; and the match will end immediately when someone reaches negative.)

Each team must have 6-7 people; 6 minimum and 7 maximum. This is to prevent teams of 8 from having teammates participating, or teams of 5 not having a substitute. Please forgive the inconveniences.

Registration format:
Team Name
Team Members 6-7 people (including captain) Baidu ID Tenhou ID

(*Editor’s Note: Baidu ID isn’t actually needed; only the contact will need one)

Contact name and method of contact
Requirement for contact: Online often, can use either Baidu HI or QQ and enter HI gruop 1309164 or QQ group 240522167 for ease of communication (important!)

For people who still do not have a team at the end of registration, the administrators will look to see if any teams require filling in. Since this defeats the purpose of team tournament, we hope that everyone will actively look for a team to join in. This is so that everyone will have more fun too www

During the last tournament, almost nobody who did not have a team was able to participate, because it’s very difficult to find teams that require more members, so we hope that everyone will work hard to get in a team.

Note:
Registration date: Starting now (that is, 21:32 July 4th GMT+8) until July 22nd, 20:00 (GMT+8). Two days will be reserved for grouping.
The first match will start on the 25th.

Rules Thread:

(Original link: http://tieba.baidu.com/p/1703232699)

The tournament will take place on tenhou. Specific lobby numbers will be given before the start of each match.

Scoring rules follow that of Saki’s; every team have five members (senpo, jiho, chuuken, fukusho, taisho), each player will play two hanchan, and the final score will decide the match (each team starts with 100k points)

If a team reaches negative points, the match will end immediately

1. During each hanchan, negative local score does not end match; and south 4 does not prevent renchan even for 1st place

We will enforce these with tournament lobby settings, so the players don’t need to worry about it.

(*This is a relic from last year anyways; new lobby features allows administrators to directly set starting points)

2. There are no west round winds

3. During Taisho match second hanchan south 4, top oya agari or tenpai does not cause renchan

As for this rule, we will also help the players observe.

4. If the team declares riichi with less than 1000 points, then the match will end instantly

We will notify captains when they have less than 1000 points, so captains please notify your team member in order to prevent losing. We also ask the players to stay in chatroom as much as possible, awaiting the captain’s notification.

(*3 and 4 are also relic that are obsolete with new features)

Pre-loading: We will be using tournament lobbies rather than normal lobbies. As such loading may be difficult, so for players’ internet connection is not very smooth, we advise everyone to load prematurely as much as possible. Sometimes time wasted on loading can extend as long as one or two hours (*Wtf?), so please be prepared.

Lateness: We will wait 20 minutes for late players. Any players who are late for more than 20 minutes will be replaced by administrative substitutes (who will immediately disconnect upon starting the match), so please be on time.

Substitute: For players who cannot participate due to unforseenable circumstances, registered substitutes are allowed (note that non-registered substitutes are NOT allowed). If the team does not have substitutes and wish to temporarily swap two positions (for example fukusho is no-show; taisho wants to play in fukusho’s place, while fukusho who arrive late will play taisho isntead); these kind of swaps are only allowed once per match. For second swap on, you will have to ask for consent from the other three teams’ captains. If any of them disagrees, then the swap will be disallowed, and a random administrative substitute will be used instead, so please be sure to schedule your time beforehand.

Disconnection: We will not be responsible for any disconnections. Matches will not be delayed or replayed for the sake of disconnected players. We ask everyone to understand and arrange well before playing.

Sibstitutes: 1) If an entire team gives up, then the substitute team will be seen as a new team in the tournament, and their results will be valid for themselves.

2. If a team is forcibly substituted by administrators due to bad sportsmanship, the subsitutes will try their best to score, but if the team ends up gainig the right to advance, it will be revoked and the next team in placement’s score will be compared with other teams in same placements, with the highest obtaining the right to advance.

3. If a team only has a member forcibly subsituted due to lateness, the substitute will simply tsumokiri, but the final team result will be valid.

Same score: If there are same scores at the end, then priority will be given depending on the ordering of oya in taisho match’s second oya (east 1 oya > east 2 oya > east 3 oya > east 4 oya). This is the same as tenhou ruling.

Windows version: There are certain advantages when playing in windows mode (for example, one may choose to not use red doras when calling). Any players who wish to use windows version can use it freely.